April Ryan Calls Out The Trump Administration: 'There Is A Deliberate Attack On The Black Woman'

The veteran journalist, who has covered presidencies for more than two decades, has endured death threats, verbal lashings and assaults on her character, all in the last 18 months.

Why? She sums it up to being a Black woman.

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Taking to the 2018 ESSENCE Festival Empowerment Stage, the CNN political analyst moderated a panel with Rutgers University Professor Dr. Brittney Cooper, and author/motivational speaker, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson. During a pointed conversation on Black women and the new world order, Ryan openly condemned the administration for their ongoing aggression towards not only her, but other successful Black women, and made her own inferences as to why it keeps happening.

“There is a division in this country. They can say that it’s not. But we are not post-racial at all,” Ryan said. “But when you dig into the weeds it’s beyond race. It’s now going down to the Black woman. There is a deliberate attack on the Black woman.”

Elaborating further, Ryan went on to suggest that the reason the current administration seems to be committed to tearing Black women down is because we continue to expand on our successes.

“Black women are now rising in number as head of household, wage earners,” Ryan reminded festival attendees, while also pointing out that the piercing attacks from the administration are no coincidence.

With no end to the attacks in sight, Ryan gave onlookers something to think about, asking, “How do we survive this? They are trying to change the dynamic of who we are and recreate our history. How do we survive that?”

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For more on everything you missed at the 2018 ESSENCE Festival be sure to head back to ESSENCE.com.